Lego League robotics: HRMS, May St. teams advance to State

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Team Celsius from Hood River Middle School won an invitation to the First Lego League state championship tournament in January with a first-place finish in Saturday’s First Lego League qualifying tournament at The Dalles Middle School.

The Robo Dragons, a May Street Elementary First Lego League (FLL) team, took first place in their division.

The Dalles Middle School’s Mighty Morphing Lego Arrangers took second place, also earning a berth at the state event. Two other teams will also advance: the Hard CORE Athletibots of Goldendale Middle School and the LAECAT of The Dalles Middle School.

Celsius dominated the Robot Performance category, where teams program their Lego robots to perform a variety of tasks. Teams start with a set amount of points and see points deducted if their robots fail to perform a variety of different tasks. Each team has three tries and the best of the three is the counting score.

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Families and robot lovers of all ages are invited to watch the fun at the Columbia Gorge First Lego League Tournament this weekend.

The free event will be held from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Dec. 8 at Wy’east Middle School (3000 Wy’east Road near Odell).

The tournament is a local qualifier for the international FLL robotics competition for kids ages 9 to 14. Winners will travel to the state tournaments in Hillsboro in January.

The high school robotics team is hosting the event. This is a first for FLL tournaments. No other qualifier in the history of First robotics has been hosted by a high school FTC team. advisor Jeff Blackman said Petra Knapp has been the driving force for the high school working closely with Google and the Gorge Technology Alliance.